How To Touch Up Car Paint

There are a few different ways you can touch-up the paint on your vehicle. Most touch-up work is done in order to cover or repair small knicks and scatches to make the vehicle more presentable at resale.

Auto dealerships actually pay for a service that will come out to their lots and do touch-up work right there on the spot. They will go over the vehicle and charge a fee to repair what they find.

So where do you start to touch-up your paint.First consult your vehicles owners manual to locate the paint code for that vehicle.Take that code with you so you can purchase touch-up paint at an Auto dealer. This container has a built in brush for small areas. Be careful to just use a tiny amount when you start don’t put it on to heavy this tends to make it look worse. You can alway add a little at a time.

The second way to touch-up is to do what the pros do and use an airbrush. This method is oftened used for touching up bumpers on vehicles. This will take some practice if you have never used an airbrush.

I am one of those pros who does this kind of work for the Auto dealers so I know what I am talking about. To practice when I first started out I went to a junk yard and purchased a few used bumper covers. Then through trial and error I became very good at it. I charge $75.00 per bumper, so 10 a day you do the math. This can be a very profitable business.

 To touch up an area on a bumper first you are going to have to sand the area lightly.Before painting use masking tape and newspaper to cover areas to protect from overspay(tail lights etc..) Fill your airbrush with 3 parts paint and 1 part thinner. Now with a side to side motion releasing the trigger at the end of your stroke apply a light coat and let it dry for 10 minutes this will help the paint adhere better to surface. Now continue to proccess until you have covered the area. Again let the paint dry slightly and then apply clearcoat to surface. You should try to do this in a garage or and area that is secure from wind, dust and dirt. Dirt is your worst enemy when it comes to painting so make sure the area your are going to be working on is clean and dry. Once you have completed the painting remove the masking tape and paper and your are good to go. Do not wash this area for a couple of weeks and do not use any compounds or wax on surface. Remember touch up is purely for cosmetic purposes. Some people are very picky when they are looking at a vehicle for sale. I have seen them walk away because of a simple thing like a scratch on a bumper. However if you are able to fix those scratches and make the vehicle more presentable you will have a far better chance of selling that vehicle. Just rember to take your time and don’t over apply paint. A big glob of paint looks alot worse then a scatch!